The hot breath spilling from the man’s thin lips brushed against her ear, making Chu Ningwu’s ears tingle and melt.
She truly could not understand why the male lead would ask such a question. Didn’t he already know he couldn’t have children?
Why ask her on purpose?
Could it be that he had figured out she had transmigrated here and was deliberately testing whether she knew his secret?
She was doomed.
Chu Ningwu suddenly remembered what she had just said. She and the male lead were supposed to be complete strangers, so how had she even known he had skipped grades as a child…
Absolutely fatal.
Chu Ningwu was practically crying over her own stupidity.
Trying to outplay the male lead was no different from bargaining with a tiger.
She instantly deflated.
Where could she even run to?
The original host had successfully escaped overseas to give birth because she had acted swiftly and decisively, buying a plane ticket and leaving without hesitation.
But now low-energy Xiao Ning had taken over, and all she wanted was to be lazy and go home to sleep.
To survive as the vicious supporting female character until the finale really did require enduring eighty-one hardships.
She simply was not cut out for it.
And now she had even aroused the male lead’s suspicion.
She really could not keep playing this game.
Haha.
She surrendered.
She gave up completely.
Huo Zhi Chuan would never have imagined that his casual teasing remark would make the little woman lose all will to fight.
He only saw her suddenly go blank, as though all her strength had been drained away, all emotion stripped from her, leaving behind nothing but an exquisitely beautiful doll sitting there in a daze without even blinking.
His own heart seemed to twist painfully along with her.
He could no longer care about anything else.
He directly scooped her into his arms, lifting her in a princess carry under the stunned gazes of the security guards, Chu Mother, and the two little chubby boys.
Then he strode downstairs.
Chu Ningwu gave up thinking and obediently curled up in his arms.
The cold winter air brushed against her cheeks.
It felt as though she had cried all her tears dry, and the dried tear tracks on her face stung painfully.
This time, both her little hands stayed obediently curled in front of her chest. She still clutched the ruined box of birth control pills and did not dare wrap her arms around the male lead’s neck, nor did she dare grab his suit.
As he carried her with each jostling step, swaying slightly, she became frightened.
Her white teeth bit down on her lower lip as she tried her best to press herself closer to his broad chest.
Huo Zhi Chuan looked at the awkward little kitten in his arms.
She was clearly terrified, yet still unwilling to touch him.
So he simply grabbed her little hands and draped them around his neck.
Chu Ningwu lowered her eyes and did not look at him.
Soft and obedient, she let him position her however he wanted.
At least now she had something to hold onto, and she was not quite as scared.
She finally loosened her bite on her lower lip.
Only afterward did she feel the sting.
She extended her pink tongue and gently licked it.
Huo Zhi Chuan’s gaze darkened as he watched that tiny tongue flick out, brushing across her soft full lower lip before disappearing in an instant, leaving behind only even more moist and glistening pink lips that shimmered with irresistible allure.
The man’s eyes darkened abruptly.
He suddenly stopped walking.
Chu Ningwu lifted her thin eyelids in confusion and quickly glanced at him.
Was he going to throw her away here?
But even if she were a kitten, if abandoned in the residential complex, she would still know how to find her way home.
If he was going to abandon her, shouldn’t he at least dump her somewhere like an abandoned factory or a decaying old hospital…
The more Chu Ningwu thought about it, the more she frightened herself.
She shrank in his arms and tightened her lotus-like arms around his neck.
Huo Zhi Chuan was amused by her frightened yet attached expression.
Without warning, he chuckled and asked,
“Does this count as being unfamiliar?”
Chu Ningwu had already felt deeply embarrassed from the vibration of his chest as he laughed while speaking.
But once she fully processed his words, her ears tingled even more.
Her gaze had nowhere to settle.
Directly in front of her was his prominent Adam’s apple.
If she lowered her head, there was his powerful heartbeat.
If she looked up, there were his dark, ink-like eyes.
So she simply closed her eyes as if nothing was wrong.
“Weren’t you the one carrying me?”
He had originally been questioning why she had described their relationship that way earlier.
But her response lightly shifted all responsibility away from herself.
Was she saying that she alone was unfamiliar with him, and he was the one insisting on holding her?
Huo Zhi Chuan should have been annoyed by how she deliberately twisted his meaning.
Yet somehow, when faced with her spoiled little kitten demeanor, he could not summon any anger.
Instead, holding her soft fragrant body in his arms, his heart seemed to overflow with sweetness.
“Why were you upset earlier? When I asked how you were taking birth control pills?”
The fact that Huo Zhi Chuan was infertile was something even Assistant Lin did not know.
As for those who had humiliated him in childhood, he had taken revenge on them one by one after rising to power.
The people who knew this secret should only be himself and the diagnosing doctor who was still alive.
What happened between them that night had been sudden.
No one had remembered protection.
Even when Huo Zhi Chuan thought about it afterward, he knew he had no need for it.
But actually seeing her silently taking birth control pills herself was another matter entirely.
He knew birth control pills were harmful to a woman’s body.
If possible, it was better not to take them.
Huo Zhi Chuan was still considering whether he should tell her the truth about his infertility.
But then he heard the little woman purse her pink lips and softly say,
“Huo Zong, I’m not suitable to bear your child. There’s always a chance something could happen. I don’t want unnecessary complications.”
As soon as Chu Ningwu heard him probing her again, she decided to lay everything out honestly.
She knew she could never outplay the male lead in schemes anyway.
Sincerity was her only ultimate weapon.
Hopefully, seeing how obediently she had taken birth control, he would spare her.
So as she spoke, she gazed sincerely into his eyes with her excessively beautiful watery eyes, saying every word with utmost seriousness.
Huo Zhi Chuan frowned.
The crease between his brows was not deep, but it still made Chu Ningwu instinctively tense up, her little hands tightening again and lightly scratching the back of his neck, sending a strange itch through him.
Almost unconsciously, he blurted out,
“Why aren’t you calling me brother anymore?”
Why call him Huo Zong?
Hearing those two words from her mouth sounded unbearably unpleasant.
Chu Ningwu was utterly shaken.
A flood of crimson spread from behind her ears across her entire face.
Her scarlet lips were bitten into the color of ripe fruit, topped with a small, full lip bead that looked perfectly suited to be sucked between someone’s lips.
She nearly suspected she was dreaming.
Was this really something the male lead should be saying?
And when had she ever called him brother…
Wasn’t that only when she had been helping the two little boys address him?
Did that count too?
Could this possibly be some strange personal preference of the male lead’s?
For the sake of survival, should she obey and change the way she addressed him?
But this was far too embarrassing…
She was not entirely sure, so maybe she should ask again.
Chu Ningwu raised her flushed little face that looked close to tears.
Her misty eyes sparkled like they were filled with stars as she timidly asked,
“Huo Zong… do you… want me to call you brother?”